Day 2 – Day Trip to Gotemba and Supposedly Lake Ashi

The plan for Day 2 was beautifully simple, on paper: spend half a day getting our shopping fix at Gotemba Premium Outlets, then swan off to Lake Ashi in Hakone for a river cruise and a postcard-perfect view of Mt Fuji. Gotemba and Lake Ashi sit close enough to each other that most people visiting Hakone tack Gotemba on as a day trip, so we figured — why not us too.

Spoiler: Mt Fuji had other plans. But let’s back up.

Gotemba Premium Outlets: shopping with (allegedly) a mountain view

Gotemba Premium Outlets is one of Japan’s largest and most-loved outlet malls, and its biggest party trick is that it sits practically in Mt Fuji’s front yard. On a clear day, you can genuinely get a jaw-dropping, picture-perfect view of Fuji-san right from the outlet walkways — no hiking boots required, just a credit card and comfortable shoes. There are also lovely rest areas facing the mountain if you just want to sit, snack, and stare.

Key word there: clear day. Fuji is famously shy and loves hiding behind clouds, so don’t bank your entire itinerary on seeing it here (we didn’t get the memo, more on that below).

Getting to Gotemba from Tokyo:

• Direct highway bus – the easiest option. Buses run from Shinjuku (and Tokyo/Shibuya) straight to Gotemba Premium Outlets, taking roughly 1.5–2 hours depending on traffic. This is the route which we take and the most efficient.
• Train – take the Odakyu Line from Shinjuku to Gotemba Station (or via Odawara/Kozu on JR lines), then hop on the free shuttle bus to the outlets. This route takes longer, closer to 2–2.5 hours all in, but is a solid option if you already have a Japan Rail Pass.

If you are planning to go to Hakone this is how to get to Gotemba:

• The Hakone Tozan Bus runs direct, hourly services between Gora Station (or Yunessun) and Gotemba Premium Outlets, taking about 45 minutes. Convenient, scenic, and — big tip coming up — already paid for if you’re holding the right pass.

Money-saving tip: if you’re basing yourself in Hakone, the trip to Gotemba is covered by the Hakone Free Pass. The pass already gets you unlimited rides on the Hakone Tozan train, cable car, ropeway, Lake Ashi pirate cruise, and designated buses — and the Gotemba-bound bus from the Hakone area falls under that same “designated buses” umbrella. So if you’re doing the Hakone loop anyway, buying the pass and swinging by Gotemba on the way is basically a freebie. Very much worth it.

Our Half Day in Gotemba

Arriving in Gotemba, I went straight into shopping mode — full send, launching myself from store to store and promptly abandoning Hubby somewhere between the sneaker outlet and the third handbag store. Did I think about Mt Fuji? Did I take a single scenic photo? Absolutely not. In my head, Lake Ashi was where “sightseeing time” would happen, so Gotemba was strictly business: shop till you drop.

Hubby, left to his own devices, spent his time nobly trying to photograph Mt Fuji in the background and entertain Fabio and himself in a game arcade. Unfortunately the sky had other ideas — it was cloudy and foggy, and Fuji-san stayed firmly in witness-protection mode. Zero mountain, several bags.

We had lunch in Gotemba, where the food court impressed us with a genuinely wide range of dining options — and a pleasant surprise: a prayer room for Muslim visitors, tucked away and easy to find. Small thing, but it made the visit a lot smoother for us.

Then, right on cue as we left, it started to rain.

The Bus, the Rain, and the Diaper Emergency

We boarded a bus toward Lake Ashi in Hakone, and the road there is a proper winding mountain road — twist after turn after turn. Naturally, this was the exact moment Alyssa announced she needed to poop. There was, thankfully, a toilet on board. What followed was a full-body core workout I never signed up for, performing an emergency diaper change in a bus toilet roughly the size of a shoebox while the bus swayed through hairpin bends. If there were an Olympic sport for this, I’d have qualified.

Lake Ashi: Cancelled, Because of Course

By the time we arrived, the rain was at its worst, and the wind wasn’t playing nice either — all the sightseeing cruises had been cancelled. #crying. So much for the majestic Fuji reflection shot we’d been dreaming about.

With nothing left to do lakeside in that weather, we cut our losses and boarded a bus to Odawara instead.

Detour: Odawara

Odawara isn’t just a transit stop between Tokyo and Hakone — it’s a proper castle town with over 550 years of samurai history, and honestly deserves more than the “just passing through” treatment most travellers give it.

Getting to Odawara from Tokyo: the fastest way is the Shinkansen (Kodama or Hikari) from Tokyo Station, about 35 minutes. Budget travellers can take the Odakyu Line express from Shinjuku to Odawara Station, roughly 1.5 hours.

Getting to Odawara from Hakone: it’s the gateway station for the whole Hakone loop, so getting back is easy — just hop on the Hakone Tozan Railway from Gora or Hakone-Yumoto back down to Odawara, about 15–35 minutes depending on where you start. And yes, this is covered by the Hakone Free Pass too.

What to do in Odawara:

• Odawara Castle – the closest major castle keep to Tokyo, with a museum inside showcasing samurai armor and swords, plus an observation deck with views over Sagami Bay.
• Tokiwagi Gate Samurai Hall – try on real samurai armor for photos.
• Ninja Museum – within the castle grounds, fun for kids and adults alike.
• Minaka Odawara – a shopping and dining complex right by the station, with a foot bath if your legs need a break.
• Suzuhiro Kamaboko Museum – a quirky little museum (and workshop) dedicated to Odawara’s famous fish cakes.

Braving the Storm for a Castle Photo

We arrived in Odawara and, slightly unhinged at this point, decided to brave the weather and walk to the castle anyway. We got our photos — castle in the background, plus a tree that looked suspiciously like sakura but definitely wasn’t, since it was still deep winter and the cherry blossoms were months away from making an appearance.

The rain hadn’t let up, and walking against that wind was its own epic saga — dramatic, a little painful, and it claimed our umbrella as a casualty. It flipped inside out, snapped, and was declared dead on arrival.

Eventually we surrendered to the weather gods and retreated indoors to a department store, where we had an early dinner and dried off. As the sky darkened, we called it a day and took the train back to Ueno, where our accommodation was waiting.

So, Was It a Bust?

Not really — just a very soggy plot twist. And it’s exactly why we’d tell anyone planning this route: give yourself at least 2 days in the Hakone and Gotemba area, not just one. Hakone alone has enough to fill a couple of days on its own — the Hakone Ropeway over the volcanic Owakudani valley, the Hakone Open-Air Museum, onsen towns, the Hakone Shrine torii gate rising out of Lake Ashi, and of course the cruise we never got to take. Cramming Gotemba, Lake Ashi, and Odawara into a single day leaves zero buffer for bad weather — and in a mountain region like this, bad weather is less “if” and more “when.”

Which brings us to the one souvenir we didn’t buy but definitely took home: always, always check the weather forecast before heading into mountain areas. Fuji is notoriously camera-shy even on good days, and wind or rain can shut down cable cars, ropeways, and boat cruises with zero warning. A quick check the night before could’ve saved us an umbrella, a lot of soggy socks, and possibly our sanity on that lake-bound bus.

Would we do it again? Yes. Would we check the forecast first? Also yes. Lesson learned, Fuji-san — we’ll be back for that photo.